Shang-Period Military
Feb 9, 2018 © Ulrich Theobald
Information on Shang-period military history relies on three different types of sources, first,
transmitted texts from ancient antiquity, second, oracle bone inscriptions, and third,
archaeological discoveries. The first can only be relied on with caution, as quite a few texts
purporting to inform on the Shang period were written much later, and because excavations do
not prove statements of such texts.
Standing (central government) troops
It is known that during the reign of King Wu Ding 武丁 (r. 1238-1180), the central government
disposed of three regiments, called the Central, Left, and Right Regiment (zhongshi 中師,
zuoshi 左師, youshi 右師). In oracle inscriptions, the character 師 is written like . These were
standing armies and were used to defend the royal domain (wangji 王畿) and to secure newly
submitted territory. In order to defend border regions, the royal troops (wangshi 王師, woshi
我師 “Our troops”) were sent and garrisoned in remote regions. The king's relatives also
commanded smaller contingents of troops which were garrisoned in the capital. These units
were called zu 族 (Yang 1994: 42). Royal armies were usually commanded by relatives of the
king or that of a consort, in the case of Fu Hao 婦好 even the queen. The number of royal troops
was about 9,000 or somewhat more (He 1987: 13; Yang 1994: 46).
Royal hunts (tianlie 畋獵) were usual occasions to train military skills.
Apart from the standing troops, the Shang fell back on the conscription of troops in case of
immediate danger. They were called deng 登 (i.e. zheng 征) “conscripts” or zhong 眾 “the
multitudes”. From the inscriptions, one might deduct the assumption that during the reign of
Wu Ding, military conscription was still an exceptional matter, and was therefore minutely
recorded, while in later times, when the term deng appears rarely, it had become a usual means
of staffing armies.
Figure 1. Drawing of a hoard of weapons. The hoard shows mainly helmets and dagger-axes (ge). Liang & Gao
1970: 34.